The Relational Data Model and

Relational Database Constraints

Chapter 2
Chapter Outline
• Relational Model Concepts
• Relational Model Constraints and Relational Database Schemas
• Update Operations and Dealing with Constraint Violations
Relational Model Concepts
• The relational Model of Data is based on the concept of a
Relation
• A Relation is a mathematical concept based on the ideas of
sets
• The strength of the relational approach to data management
comes from the formal foundation provided by the theory of
relations
Informal Definitions
• Informally, a relation looks like a table of values.
• A relation typically contains a set of rows.
• The data elements in each row represent certain facts that correspond
to a real-world entity or relationship
• In the formal model, rows are called tuples
• Each column has a column header that gives an indication of the
meaning of the data items in that column
• In the formal model, the column header is called an attribute
name (or just attribute)
Example of a Relation
Informal Definitions
• Key of a Relation:
• Each row has a value of a data item (or set of items) that uniquely identifies
that row in the table
• Called the key
• In the STUDENT table, SSN is the key
Formal Definitions - Schema
• The Schema (or description) of a Relation:
• Denoted by R(A1, A2, .....An)
• R is the name of the relation
• The attributes of the relation are A1, A2, ..., An
• Example:
CUSTOMER (Cust-id, Cust-name, Address, Phone#)
• CUSTOMER is the relation name
• Defined over the four attributes: Cust-id, Cust-name, Address, Phone#
• Each attribute has a domain or a set of valid values.
• For example, the domain of Cust-id is 6 digit numbers.
Formal Definitions - Tuple
• A tuple is an ordered set of values (enclosed in angled brackets ‘< … >’)
• Each value is derived from an appropriate domain.
• A row in the CUSTOMER relation is a 4-tuple and would consist of
four values, for example:
• <632895, "John Smith", "101 Main St. Atlanta, GA 30332", "(404) 894-
2000">
• This is called a 4-tuple as it has 4 values
• A tuple (row) in the CUSTOMER relation.
• A relation is a set of such tuples (rows)
Formal Definitions - Domain
• A domain has a logical definition:
• Example: “USA_phone_numbers” are the set of 10 digit phone numbers valid in the
U.S.
• A domain also has a data-type or a format defined for it.
• The USA_phone_numbers may have a format: (ddd)ddd-dddd where each d is a
decimal digit.
• Dates have various formats such as year, month, date formatted as yyyy-
mm-dd, or as dd mm,yyyy etc.

• Let R(A1, A2) be a relation schema:

• Let dom(A1) = {0,1}
• Let dom(A2) = {a,b,c}
Definition Summary
Characteristics Of Relations
• Ordering of tuples in a relation r(R):
• The tuples are not considered to be ordered, even though they
appear to be in the tabular form.
• Ordering of attributes in a relation schema R (and of values within
each tuple):
• We will consider the attributes in R(A1, A2, ..., An) and the values
in t=<v1, v2, ..., vn> to be ordered .
Characteristics Of Relations
• Values in a tuple:
• All values are considered atomic (indivisible).
• Each value in a tuple must be from the domain of the attribute for
that column
• If tuple t = <v1, v2, …, vn> is a tuple (row) in the relation state r of R(A1,
A2, …, An)
• Then each vi must be a value from dom(Ai)

• A special null value is used to represent values that are unknown or

inapplicable to certain tuples.
Characteristics Of Relations
• Notation:
• We refer to component values of a tuple t by:
• t[Ai] or t.Ai
• This is the value vi of attribute Ai for tuple t
• Similarly, t[Au, Av, ..., Aw] refers to the subtuple of t containing the values of
attributes Au, Av, ..., Aw, respectively in t
Relational Integrity Constraints
• Constraints are conditions that must hold on all valid
relation states.
• There are three main types of constraints in the relational
model:
1. Key constraints
2. Entity integrity constraints
3. Referential integrity constraints
• Another implicit constraint is the domain constraint
• Every value in a tuple must be from the domain of its attribute (or
it could be null, if allowed for that attribute)
Key Constraints
Key Constraints (continued)
Relational Database Schema
• Relational Database Schema:
• A set S of relation schemas that belong to the same database.
• S is the name of the whole database schema
• S = {R1, R2, ..., Rn}
• R1, R2, …, Rn are the names of the individual relation schemas within the
database S
• Following slide shows a COMPANY database schema with 6 relation
schemas
COMPANY Database Schema
Entity Integrity
• Entity Integrity:
• The primary key attributes PK of each relation schema R in S
cannot have null values in any tuple of r(R).
• This is because primary key values are used to identify the individual
tuples.
• t[PK]  null for any tuple t in r(R)
• If PK has several attributes, null is not allowed in any of these attributes
• Note: Other attributes of R may be constrained to disallow null
values, even though they are not members of the primary key.
Referential Integrity
Referential integrity constraints
Update Operations on Relations
• INSERT a tuple.
• DELETE a tuple.
• MODIFY a tuple.
• Integrity constraints should not be violated by the update operations.
• Several update operations may have to be grouped together.
• Updates may propagate to cause other updates automatically. This
may be necessary to maintain integrity constraints.
Update Operations on Relations
• In case of integrity violation, several actions can be taken:
• Cancel the operation that causes the violation (RESTRICT or
REJECT option)
• Perform the operation but inform the user of the violation
• Trigger additional updates so the violation is corrected (CASCADE
option, SET NULL option)
• Execute a user-specified error-correction routine
Possible violations for each operation
• INSERT may violate any of the constraints:
• Domain constraint:
• if one of the attribute values provided for the new tuple is not of the
specified attribute domain
• Key constraint:
• if the value of a key attribute in the new tuple already exists in another
tuple in the relation
• Referential integrity:
• if a foreign key value in the new tuple references a primary key value that
does not exist in the referenced relation
• Entity integrity:
• if the primary key value is null in the new tuple
Possible violations for each operation
• DELETE may violate only referential integrity:
• If the primary key value of the tuple being deleted is referenced from other
tuples in the database
• Can be remedied by several actions: RESTRICT, CASCADE, SET NULL
RESTRICT option: reject the deletion
• CASCADE option: propagate the new primary key value into the foreign keys of the
referencing tuples
• SET NULL option: set the foreign keys of the referencing tuples to NULL
• One of the above options must be specified during database design for each
foreign key constraint
Possible violations for each operation
• UPDATE may violate domain constraint and NOT NULL constraint
on an attribute being modified
• Any of the other constraints may also be violated, depending on the
attribute being updated:
• Updating the primary key (PK):
• Similar to a DELETE followed by an INSERT
• Need to specify similar options to DELETE
• Updating a foreign key (FK):
• May violate referential integrity
• Updating an ordinary attribute (neither PK nor FK):
• Can only violate domain constraints
Summary
• Presented Relational Model Concepts
• Definitions
• Characteristics of relations
• Discussed Relational Model Constraints and Relational Database
Schemas
• Domain constraints’
• Key constraints
• Entity integrity
• Referential integrity
• Described the Relational Update Operations and Dealing with
Constraint Violations
Assignment

Consider the following relations for a database that keeps track of student
enrollment in courses and the books adopted for each course:
STUDENT(SSN, Name, Major, Bdate)
COURSE(Course#, Cname, Dept)
ENROLL(SSN, Course#, Quarter, Grade)
BOOK_ADOPTION(Course#, Quarter, Book_ISBN)
TEXT(Book_ISBN, Book_Title, Publisher, Author)
Draw a relational schema diagram specifying the foreign keys for this
schema.